Policy, office, votes – and integrity. The British Conservative Party, Brexit, and immigration

While Europe’s so-called migration crisis is of fairly recent origin, some of the continent’s centre-right parties have been successfully politicising immigration for at least half a century. But that success and that politicisation can come at a heavy price – for the country, for the party, and for those who lead it or want to lead it. With both incumbents and challengers doing their best (and doing a great deal) to determine the party line on the issue, politicisation of immigration for electoral and personal advantage can make for incoherent, even counterproductive public policy. It can also tempt the leaders, both actual and aspirant, of centre-right parties into making promises to restrict immigration which are impossible to keep, thereby raising the salience of the issue and threatening their ownership of it. Attempts to hold on to, or to regain, ownership can, along with intra-party competition, create a vicious cycle, driving policy in an ever more unrealistic direction and creating not only serious internal instability but immense external costs. The Conservative Party’s experience is a case in point.